Ray Collins (actor)

Ray Bidwell Collins (December 10, 1889 – July 11, 1965) was an Americancharacter actor in stock and Broadway theatre, radio, films, and television. With 900 stage roles to his credit, he became one of the most successful actors in the developing field of radio drama. A friend and associate of Orson Welles for many years, Collins went to Hollywood with the Mercury Theatre company and made his feature-film debut in Citizen Kane (1941), as Kane's ruthless political rival. Collins appeared in more than 75 films and had one of his best-remembered roles on television, as the irascible Lieutenant Arthur Tragg on the television series Perry Mason.

Ray Bidwell Collins was born December 10, 1889, in Sacramento, California, to Lillie Bidwell and William Calderwood Collins.[1] His father was a newspaper reporter and dramatic editor on The Sacramento Bee.[2] His mother was the niece of John Bidwell, pioneer, statesman, and founder of society in the Sacramento Valley area of California in the 19th century.[3] Collins was inspired as a young boy to become an actor after seeing a stage performance by his uncle, Ulric Collins, who had performed the role of Dave Bartlett in the Broadway production of Way Down East. He began putting on plays with neighborhood children in Sacramento.[4][5]

Collins made his professional stage debut at age 13, at the Liberty Playhouse in Oakland, California.[6] In July 1914, he and his first wife and their young son moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Collins worked as an actor.[7] In 1922, he was part of a stock company called Vancouver's Popular Players which enacted plays at the original Orpheum Theatre.[8] He operated his own stock company for five years at his own theatre, the Empress Theatre in Vancouver.[4] Collins toured in vaudeville and made his way to New York.[9]

Collins worked prodigiously in his youth. Between the ages of 17 and 30, he was said to have been out of work as an actor for a total of five weeks. In 1924, after he opened in Conscience, he was almost continually featured in Broadway plays and other theatrical productions until the Great Depression began. At that point, Collins turned his attention to radio, where he was involved in 18 broadcasts a week, sometimes working as many as 16 hours a day.[10] He also played parts in short films starting in 1930, notably in a Vitaphone Varieties series based on Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories.[11]:404

By 1960, Collins found his physical health declining and his memory waning, problems which in the next few years brought an end to his career. On the difficulty he was beginning to encounter in remembering his lines, he commented, "Years ago, when I was on the Broadway stage, I could memorize 80 pages in eight hours. I had a photographic memory. When I got out on the stage, I could actually — in my mind — see the lines written on top of the page, the middle, or the bottom. But then radio came along, and we read most of our lines, and I got out of the habit of memorizing. I lost my natural gift. Today it's hard for me. My wife works as hard as I do, cueing me at home."[26]

In October 1963, Collins filmed his last Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Capering Camera", broadcast January 16, 1964.[2] Although clearly Collins would not return to work on the series, his name appeared in the opening title sequence through the eighth season, which ended in May 1965. Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson was aware that Collins watched the show every week and did not wish to discourage him.[27]